RÉSUMÉL’article examine où les personne agées peuvent chercher l’aide pour prendre soin d’un parent avec démence et les facteurs associés à leur identification des services de santé et de soutien communautaires comme des sources d’aide. Les auteurs menées des entrevues téléphoniques, à l’aide de numérotation de chiffres aléatoires, de 1,152 adultes âgés de 50 et plus dans la ville de Hamilton. À déterminer les sources de soutien, plus 37 pour cent des répondants a identifié leur médecin, 33 pour cent a identifié un soutien informel comme la famille et voisins et 31 pour cent a identifié des services de santé maison. Seulement 18 pour cent a identifié des services de soutien communautaires. Participants femmes ayant des niveaux plus élevés de scolarité étaient plus susceptibles d’identifier leur médecin comme une source de soutien. Savoir où trouver renseignements sur services de soutien communautaires était associée à une probabilité accrue de mentionnant des médecins et des services de santé maison comme sources d’aide.

Previous findings on older adults' awareness of community support services (CSSs) have been inconsistent and marred by acquiescence or over-claiming bias. To address this issue, this study used a series of 12 vignettes to describe common situations faced by older adults for which CSSs might be appropriate. In telephone interviews, 1,152 adults aged 50 years and over were read a series of vignettes and asked if they were able to identify a community organization or agency that they may turn to in that situation. They were also asked about their most important sources of information about CSSs. The findings show that, using a vignette methodology, awareness of CSSs is much lower than previously thought. The most important sources of information about CSSs included information and referral sources, the telephone book, doctors' offices, and word of mouth.

Nutrition risk screening can help identify community-dwelling older adults who may benefit from nutrition education and interventions to improve food intake. Research has shown, however, that older adults who are found ''at risk'' through nutrition screening commonly do not see themselves at risk, and many do not follow through with accessing recommended nutrition services. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine older adults' experiences of learning they were at risk through nutrition screening and to identify what influenced their perspectives and responses to their screening results. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 22 older adults who had screened at risk (SCREEN II Ó scores \ 54) through a nutrition screening process conducted by mail. Participants received their screening results in a personalized letter before the interview, along with some recommendations to help improve food intake and decrease their nutrition risk. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. When participants reflected about receiving their screening results, some described feeling surprised or even upset by the message that they were at increased risk, whereas others felt unconcerned or reacted with heightened attentiveness to their nutrition. They also began to rationalize their screening score and found ways to explain away their risk. The message that they were at increased risk was poorly understood and not well received because it contradicted their perspective: they felt they were doing the right things, they saw room for improvement rather than seeing themselves at risk, and they tended to make comparisons that helped support the view that they were not truly at risk. Further, even though participants saw room for improvement, they described barriers to change and commonly felt that the recommendations were more applicable for others than themselves. Strategies to improve communication of nutrition screening results and recommendations are discussed to help seniors better understand their risk and take steps to improve their nutrition.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how non-physician health care professionals working in Canadian primary health care settings facilitate older persons' access to community support services (CSSs). The use of CSSs has positive impacts for clients, yet they are underused due to lack of awareness. Using a qualitative description approach, 20 health care professionals from various disciplines and primary health care models were interviewed about the processes they use to link older patients to CSSs. Participants collaborated extensively with their interprofessional colleagues within and outside their organizations to find relevant CSSs. They actively engaged patients and families in making these linkages and ensured follow-up. It was troubling to find that they relied on out-of-date resources and inefficient search strategies to find CSSs. Our findings can be used to develop resources and approaches to better support primary health care providers in linking older adults to relevant CSSs.5

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